The Lady of Shalott 1894

Geneia particularly likes this painting of the Lady of Shalott. “The Lady” seems the perfect metaphor for Victorian womanhood, cloistered in a domestic world, racked with longing for freedom and the pursuit of passion. This painting illustrates the point in the story where she turns away from the mirror, in which (like Plato’s cave dwellers) she turns away from the shadowplay of the mirror and gazes full at Lancelot through the window. The mirror cracks (click on the painting to see it better) and she begins to die from that instant.

St. Cecilia 1895

Hylas and the Nymphs 1896

Keep going to Older Posts. They’re not older. You’re only half way through the Waterhouse Pictures.